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Sometimes it was hard to remember it was a funeral for Jack Layton inside Roy Thomson Hall Saturday.

And that was exactly how Layton’s widow Olivia Chow wanted it — filled with laughter cheers and music. She spent the week overseeing every aspect, carrying out her husband’s wishes.

When his coffin came in and the ceremony began — to the strains of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra played the haunting Into the Mystic — Chow slowly made her way to her seat in the front row.

Through the two-hour ceremony, she stood like a rock, a wisp of a woman in black with short, shiny hair, never losing her composure, her face an oil painting of stoic grief.

She sat looking directly at the flag-draped coffin and flanked by the Layton/Chow family including, among others, her mother, his mother, his children Sarah and Michael and beloved granddaughter Beatrice.

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For all the jokes and laughter, there were moments of pure pain at a political funeral like none anyone could remember.

When, at times, almost the entire hall, filled with 2,630 people, was weeping, Chow’s face was calm; no tears.

“She was the Rock of Gibraltar,” said environmentalist David Suzuki. “Absolutely astonishing.”

Chow — implementing the plans which Layton himself had helped prepare — had ensured there would be a complete mix of people, including political leaders, friends and seats for ordinary Canadians.

“It really was a celebration of life,” said Suzuki. “If you care about Jack, it’s up to us to carry his work on.”

That was a message Prime Minister Stephen Harper, also in the front row, listened to repeatedly, as people kept jumping to their feet and applauding wildly.

“He had to stand up with the rest of us,” said Suzuki with a chuckle.

There were shout-outs for Jack and a sign that said, “Jack’s vision is our vision.”

In the balcony someone waved a Canadian flag. On stage officiant Rev. Brent Hawkes even leaned in towards the casket with an aside, as if Layton were listening.

At that, Chow smiled.

She laughed when Hawkes used the prime minister as an example of how people should pay more attention to each other. Looking over at Harper, he suggested that folks ask him: “Hi Prime Minister, how’s Laureen today?”

Laureen Harper, who’d wiped her eyes many times, laughed too.

Chow clapped along to Lorraine Segato’s singing of Rise Up, the song she’d sung when Chow and Jack were married on the Toronto Islands in 1988.

Even when Steven Page sang Hallelujah and sobbing was audible over his sweet voice, Chow held it together.

Perhaps there was a secret signal that the family understood when she needed help: Occasionally Sarah would reach across and take Chow’s hand.

Chow comforted Layton’s granddaughter, Beatrice, when the toddler fussed as her mother Sarah went on stage.

Both of Layton's children told anecdotes about their father. He could be embarrassing. Like the time he played his saxophone on Yonge St. — "badly," according to Sarah — after the Toronto Blue Jays first won the World Series.

And how he used to dress, said Sarah, apparently referring to his bell-bottom years.

Looking straight at Chow, she said she and her brother loved her dearly and that she'd made their lives happy. Another shared moment for the family. The celebration was especially personal when Sarah decided to share the news with the packed hall that she's having another baby.

A short time later, the Toronto Police Services honour guard bore Layton’s casket slowly out of the hall.

Chow rose with the family and walked out, still composed.

All day Saturday, she looked after others. She even left a large crowd celebrating and telling stories at a reception at Roy Thomson Hall.

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